"Ready to Take on the World"

Narconon GraduateMaddy M.

I started doing drugs when I was thirteen, started smoking cigarettes and smoking pot and drinking on the weekends with friends. Around fifteen, sixteen I started doing “mollies”, psychedelics, pills, anything I could really get my hands on. Seventeen, eighteen I started doing opiates like on the regular, I started doing heroin.

I dropped out of school and I started going from music festival to music festival. And one festival that got way out of hand and I was just taking everything at once. And I took a psychedelic and I just remember, I woke up after my trip and I was in the hospital.

And my mom’s sitting there and she’s crying, and she’s like, "You’ve been in a coma for four days. Like, you overdosed, you flatlined and you’re lucky to be alive." She was like, “Go to rehab.” And so I said, “Okay, I’ll go.”

So, when I got to Narconon I was a mess. And I didn't know what to expect, but all of the staff here was really welcoming, very helpful. There is, you know, many times that I was scared I didn't want to face myself, I didn't want to face recovery, and they helped me through it.

By the end of it I felt like a little kid again, you know what I mean? I had the mentality of a mature adult who was — like I was ready to take on the world.

Because it's not just about getting off drugs for people, it's about staying of off them. And they taught me all the tools I need to stay off of drugs and how to deal with my emotions. And I finally learned how to respect myself, how to appreciate what I can give, you know. I learned to love myself.